I studied Romance and Western Slavic Studies at the University of Freiburg and received my master’s degree in Slavic Studies and Eastern European History from the University of Gießen. I earned my PhD with a comparative study on contemporary Polish-Jewish and German-Jewish literature that was awarded the dissertation prize in 2019. Between 2019-2022 I worked as a postdoc at the Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe (Marburg) in the project Family planning in East Central Europe from the 19th century until the approval of the “pill”. I focused on abortion trials on the background of professional and public debates of maternity in interwar Poland and authored a monograph to be published in 2025. From 2021-2024 I was a project leader in the interdisciplinary research consortium UrbanMetaMapping, where I examined post-1945 narratives of Central European Cities applying methods from literary science intersecting with critical cartography and history. I initiated and co-founded the series Interdisciplinary Studies on Spatial Dynamics and Marginalization in Central and Eastern Europe at Lexington Books/Bloomsbury (together with Magdalena Baran-Szołtys).

I am passionate about teaching and hope to inspire students with an enthusiasm about the region. I tought BA and MA students in the fields of Slavis Studies, History, Political and Cultural Sciences at the universities of Gießen, Marburg, Frankfurt/Oder, and Siegen.

In 2024 I was elected board member of the Polish Studies Association involved in social media and grant awarding activities and member of the COST-Action Democratization at stake? Comparing Anti-Gender Politics in CEE and NME countries.

Before I started my position at FU Berlin, I was a research fellow at Indiana University Bloomington at the Robert F. Byrnes Russian and East European Institute (October 2024).

My areas of interest are gender, memory, and urban studies with a focus on Central Europe and German-Polish relations. My work is situated on the intersection of literature and history and dedicated to exploring the marginalized voices in society and culture. I am particularly interested in theories of narrativization (i.e. how narratives are constructed and how they unfold their power) across disciplinary boundaries, so I usually bridge literary analyzing tools and historical inquiry to address social, and narrative transformations in the region.

The DEMFAM project offers an excellent opportunity to collaborate closely with colleagues focusing on different regions while expanding my own expertise in Eastern Central Europe to include a new historical period. In the past, my research has centered on discourses surrounding motherhood, sexuality, and abortion from the late 19th century to the early years of the People's Republic of Poland. As a postdoctoral researcher specializing in Eastern Central Europe, I aim to adopt a comparative approach and particularly highlight the political and ideological diversity of the region.

Books

Autobiographisches Schreiben als ästhetisches Problem. Jüdische Vielfalt in der polnischen und deutschen Gegenwartsliteratur, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2019.

Maternity in (Times of) Crisis? Vienna/Budapest: CEU Press, forthcoming.

Edited Volumes and Special Issues

Birth Control as a National Challenge: Nationalizing Concepts of Families in Eastern Europe 1914–1939, Journal of Family History, (48)3 2023, (with Heidi-Hein-Kircher). https://doi.org/10.1177/03631990231160107

Handbook of Polish, Czech, and Slovak Holocaust Fiction. Works and Contexts, 2021, Berlin: De Gruyter. (with Jiří Holý, Agata Firlej, Hana Nichtburgerová), open access https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110671056/html

Pop-Holocaust(s): Poznańskie Studia Slawistyczne, 24/2023, (with Urszula Kowalska-Nadolna), open access

Challenging Norms and Narrations: Tracing Family Planning and Social Change in Eastern Europe, Berghahn (with Heidi-Hein-Kircher and Denisa Nestaková), forthcoming.

Articles (selection)

“Divergent Narratives on Family Planning in Interwar Poland. Between ‘Secret Marriage Tricks’ and ‘The Obligation of Maternity’ in Sexuality, Family Planning, and Reproduction” in: Historical Dimensions in Central and Eastern Europe from 1600 until Today, ed. by Fritz Dross, Bielefeld: transcript, forthcoming.

„Sexualität erzählen. Körperlichkeit in polnischen Eheratgebern vom 19. Jahrhundert bis 1939“ in: Körperkonzepte. Transformationen in slawischen Literaturen und Kulturen, ed. by Magdalena Baran-Szołtys, Ingeborg Jandl. Wien/Köln: Böhlau, forthcoming.

“Entangled Identities and the History of Spaces in 21st century Jewish Literature from Germany and Poland”, in: Teksty Drugie, no. 1/2024, pp. 88–106, DOI: 10.18318/td.2024.en.1.6

“Politicizing Family in Post–war Research on Family Planning: The Institute of Mother and Child in Warsaw” in Central Europe, 21(2), 2024, pp. 111–126, https://doi.org/10.1080/14790963.2023.2294411

„Elbing vs. Elbląg. From Contested Land to Decolonial Representations”, in: Czytanie literatury, No. 12/2023, pp. 95–113, https://doi.org/10.18778/2299-7458.12.07

“The Family as ‘Best Weapon’. Instrumentalising German health care discourses in Upper Silesia during the Interwar Period” in Journal of Family History, no. 3/2023, pp. 261–277, https://doi.org/10.1177/03631990231160093.

For full publication record, please see my ORCID account.

Scientific Communication

Instagram: Microblog @researching.poland

„Sexualität, Abtreibung und Familie im Polen der Zwischenkriegszeit“, Podcast des Blogs Polenstudien Interdisziplinär (16.02.2023)